New US envoy dismisses ambassador speculation

The newly appointed deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in China, Robert S. Wang, denied Tuesday the possibility of him being the successor to current Ambassador Jon Huntsman, amid rising media speculation.

"The possibility of becoming the next ambassador is zero," Wang said at his first press conference in Beijing. "I may be acting for a while, but there will be a new ambassador coming here as soon as possible."

"It is too important a relationship to leave it to someone like me, and we need somebody who has stature, power and good connections," Wang added, with a hefty tongue-in-cheek.

Wang, who is a career foreign service officer, arrived in Beijing last month when Huntsman tendered his resignation, effective April 30. Speculation was circling as to whether Wang could be the first Chinese-American to become US ambassador to China.

Obama's 2009 pick of Huntsman for the Beijing post was seen as a political masterstroke, potentially taking a possible rival out of the 2012 election.

Huntsman, a moderate voice in the Republican Party, met with several former political advisers in the US in December to discuss a potential White House run, according to Newsweek magazine.

"He hasn't made the decision on what to do," Wang said. "But he is absolutely qualified and capable of (running the presidential campaign)."

Wang also gave a brief introduction of the upcoming US-China Governors Forum set to start this week.

The two countries presented the US-China Governors Forum during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the US last month, aiming to further support exchanges.

Zhou Qiang, secretary of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, will attend the forum Saturday in Washington as the first representative from China.

"This is a beginning of the dialogues at a sub-national level between the US and China," Wang said. "We should have more than just negotiations and talks between two central governments."

The mechanism is set to promote mutual exchang! es and c ooperation between local governors from two countries, as well as build a deeper Sino-US partnership, he added.


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